The Pope: Now performing exorcisms, apparently

THE new Pope – Pope Francis, as everyone has clearly forgotten his name already, after watching him get unveiled like an X Factor winner on TV – has a fascination with the Devil. That goes without saying because, ostensibly, his entire job is to make everyone feel guilty and warn them away from ol’ Lucifer.

However, in some quarters, they’re saying his obsession with Beelzebub is rather peculiar and that he’s been exorcising people. One ‘leading’ exorcist insists that Francis helped “liberate” a Mexican man possessed by four different demons.

Of course, the Vatican is saying that no such papal exorcism took place, but they’re denying everything at the moment, just to be on the safe side.

At the end of a Mass in Mexico, Francis blessed several wheelchair-bound faithful, including a man ‘possessed by the devil’, according to the priest who brought him, the Rev. Juan Rivas. Our Popeness put his hands on the man’s head and recited a prayer. Reports say that “the man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair.”

The images prompted the television station of the Italian bishops’ conference to declare that according to several exorcists, there was “no doubt” that Francis either performed an exorcism or a simpler prayer to free the man from the devil.

So either Catholics are saying that The Pope has magical anti-Devil powers or, all disabled people are infected with demons. Neither would surprise, really.

The Vatican said in a statement that Francis “didn’t intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him.”

However, The Rev. Gabriele Amorth, a leading exorcist for the diocese of Rome, said he performed a lengthy exorcism of his own on the man Tuesday morning and ascertained he was possessed by four separate demons: “That was a true exorcism… exorcisms aren’t just done according to the rules of the ritual.”

The Pope has been a bit heavy on the devil stuff. In his very first homily as pope on March 14, Francis warned cardinals that “he who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil,” and has mentioned Satan many times since, at one point, saying that he needed a dialogue with the Devil.

Watch the Pope perform ‘an exorcism’ here.

Photo: In this July 14, 2010 file photo, a demonstrator looks on between banners that read in Spanish: “Satan take off your cassock,” during a rally to support a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentina’s gay community was upset about the news that former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was chosen as Pope, recalling that years ago Bergoglio had spoken out strongly against gay marriage.